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MIDI, a standard for digital music since 1981, has been updated to MIDI 2.0. New MIDI 2.0 is not dependent on any particular hardware implementation such as USB or Ethernet. Some of the main goals of the new protocol are to provide higher resolution, more channels, and improved performance and expressiveness. Another change is a move from a byte stream to data packets.
MIDI 2.0 is designed to "deliver an unprecedented level of nuanced musical and artistic expressiveness," and leans on three key design decisions to do so. Firstly its new 32-bit resolution makes for smoother, continuous, analogue feel - if you want that. Controllers will be easy to use and there will be more of them. Lastly major timing advances are present in the standard.
Also at the MIDI Association's press release, Details about MIDI 2.0™, MIDI-CI, Profiles and Property Exchange.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Saturday February 01 2020, @01:10AM (3 children)
One thing is the protocol, another is the latency. Atari ST IIRC had integrated MIDI and no timing problems. My macs (166mhz ppc) had no timing problems. So it can be done.
I never tried it because a shitty laptop with mpv in a ssh session with 50 mt of ethernet cable was enough for my use case (also resilient to accidental disconnection), but supercollider is reportedly able to remotely control player units using OSC, open sound control, with controlled sync.
Sure, the problem with MIDI is if you miss a note off event due to transmission problems. It's like a piano with a stuck key. Now, I ask you, when was the last time you heard one stuck key in a live concert? happens once every 1000 times? less? Is that going to justify packets? Which are inherently worse for latency btw?
MIDI with possibly a speedier connection (dunno if serial speed is part of the protocol) and some sysex messages standardized to provide some error correction to avoid missing note on and note off events, or switching to OSC, would probably suffice, if you are anal enough to think MIDI is outdated.
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(Score: 4, Interesting) by mth on Saturday February 01 2020, @01:53AM (1 child)
I think they realized that people aren't going to use MIDI 2.0 over serial cables, but over for example USB or ethernet instead. Which means that MIDI messages will have to be wrapped in packets anyway.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Tuesday February 04 2020, @12:42PM
BTW
Old MIDI 5 pole DIN connector: cheap repairable and just works
USB connector: good luck, slow to reconnect in case something goes wrong, flimsy, let's not even go into the mini/micro ones. Maybe USB C. Maybe.
Ethernet: LOL by live n. 3 you will scour the web for industrial RJ45 or for adhesive to keep them connectors in place. They already give problems in vibration-less, static, office setups.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 01 2020, @08:37PM
When you are using MIDI in a larger venue, latency is a huge issue. Different length wires, daisy chaining, and the limited transfer speeds all make a difference. Sure, a single guy playing into a single controller feeding into a single synthesizer into a single amp assembly isn't going to notice. However, the professionals in big venues have to factor in the different timing from the speed of sound from speaker sets getting feed at different times from different amps, getting fed from different synthesizers, getting fed by different instruments that get their signals at different times due to limits of the protocol having to message one thing at a time. And that is just the stuff on the surface.